Stonington — For the second time in three weeks, a member of the Charter Revision Commission has resigned. 

Gail Shea said she feels she is being “railroaded,” as many of the suggested changes brought up by residents will not be considered. She said this is because the commission wants to complete work on the issue of changing how Board of Finance members are elected so residents can vote on the change in November. 

Residents unhappy that Board of Finance members are typically selected by their parties and run unopposed forced the creation of the commission to look at ensuring the elections are contested. 

The commission is allowed to propose other changes to the charter. 

“Charter revisions do not occur very often. It is not good government to let this opportunity be so limited — by focusing primarily on one issue. It is not fair to the voters as they should have the opportunity to vote on other matters that affect their government,” wrote Shea in her letter of resignation to the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday. “Because the CRC is not going to address additional substantive matters that have been brought to them, there is no reason for me to remain on the Commission. The CRC has broken faith with the voters and me.” 

Last month, commission member Constance Frishman resigned, charging that the majority of her fellow members only were interested in dismantling the Board of Finance because of its conservative budgeting. She is married to longtime finance board member Glenn Frishman. 

Shea said residents and commission members had requested that many issues be addressed. Some included increasing the size of the Board of Selectmen, establishing a town manager form of government, creating recall elections, establishing a standing ethics commission and precluding the finance board from making line item reductions in the town budget. 

The commission decided to first complete its work on the finance board issues and then take up others if they have time. 

“I did what I could to speed along the work on the Board of Finance, hoping to leave enough time to do justice to the other items,” wrote Shea. “Unfortunately, when the CRC essentially completed its work concerning the BOF, sentiment on the Commission rapidly changed. Many members, including the Chair, quickly tried to wind things up. For example, I felt railroaded when I received a draft of a revised Charter containing revisions we had not yet addressed. I was told it was done to speed things up.” 

She said commission members have argued that other proposed changes would hinder passage of the finance board changes and would slow down the implementation of the finance board changes. She called both arguments “bogus” as each change could be presented to voters as a separate item, while a vote to add a seventh finance board member could not take place until 2017. 

“All that this rushing accomplishes is to eliminate the possibility of considering other substantive matters for inclusion in Charter revision,” she wrote.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas